99 A6 quattro 112k miles.

Once again 3000 miles from my last major problem my a/c broke on me today. My car isn't over heating, the a/c compressor kicks in but my freon pipes are still warm to the touch and of course my a/c blows only air from the outside. I see the a/c compressor kick in, but the RPMs on my TACH does not increase by a few hundred like they normally do. Also noticed a clink sound when I turned it off. Compressor for sure right? 1500 dollars out of my tax return.

 

Umm, it's -2 degs here. I sure wish I needed to use my A/C.

 

Its 77 in Miami, but once this cold front pulls out, back to 85 degree nights. 90+ days.

 

What did they repair before? There is no way for us to diagnose it without knowing the pressures on the high and low side. I would assume the refrigerant (not freon, thats R-12) leaked out again from a poor repair. That or they really didn't find the leak in the first place, and i'll bet its leaking from the evaporator which is behind the dash board.

 

Old repair job was a timing issue. My a/c worked fine before, just seems to have crapped out.Pressure right now looks like 45 PSI. I did notice something new. A small wine coming from the compressor. Also notice the sound of air escaping from something with my a/c on or off coming from somewhere I cant tell. Also upon turning off my car it gives one last spurt of discharge and dissipates in about one or 2 seconds. I don't smell refrigerant. I don't notice any leaks.

 

You know what auditech you sound 100% correct. The "PPPssssssstttttt" sound (sorry about my vague description) is coming from right behind the engine block. Leak coming from my Evaporator? That sounds VERY expensive. But then why is my A/C compressor starting up, but not effecting my RPMs like it normally does? Nor do I feel the slight knock like I always do when turning it on?

 

Because there is no load on the compressor (due to empty system), I'd presume.

 

Update: The sound I hear of air escaping seems to be nothing. I doubt my evaporator is the culprit because if there was a leak, I wouldn't still be hearing that sound all of my refrigerant would have leaked out by now (I think its something that's always been there). Ive noticed there seems to me a shiny moist ring of oil looking substance around my compressor. I'm almost 100% sure its shot. Of course when I stick my hand in there to see what it is, I cant till if It's oil or burnt plastic, or just lubricant. Then again I don't remember it not being that way. Hopefully Ive given enough hints to null it down to the source. Also my econ light is NOT light and my heat works fine.

 

Best thing to do I guess is just pump her up with refrigerant and see if I hear a leak.

 

Don't just put refrigerant back in, put some A/C dye in there along with new refrigerant. Have an A/C shop do this, i would also like to know what the high side pressure is, but if you don't have a set of manifold gauges then wait to see what the A/C shop says. You will need a black light to see the A/C dye, it will look like nuclear waste from a movie oozing out of the lines somewhere. It could also be the O-rings going into the evaporator, the point where the lines go into the firewall is where those o-rings are. Of course using a dye will make it easy to see where its coming from.